Web development as an incentive or in pursuit of a dream
Greetings to all!
My name is Dmitry. I'm 36 years old and I'm a web developer / designer. I work in a German IT-company.
This is a story about how to achieve something more, overcoming difficulties. Here I will deliberately use only names, assuming that all participants want to remain anonymous. But if one of them reads this article and recognizes itself, then only with their permission will I indicate their names, their sites and projects.
')
It all started about 10 years ago. Young or not so young I decided to get an education in Germany. I myself am from a poor family, without any connections, and there’s absolutely nothing for a normal person to catch in my city. I will not describe the whole process with tickets, visas, an invitation from the university, I do not write about it here at all.
I, like each of you, met the success stories of people from England, USA or South America, and almost always found reflections of my life in them. And now, just want to tell my story. Although I understand that I am not the only one who has experienced a similar situation, about which below.
Probably, it makes no sense to read all these lyrics to people who have IT-education, who speak English and super experienced, who understood everything in life and understand everything better than anyone else. I am writing for ordinary people who, due to life circumstances, have lost heart, do not know what to do and let even a little this story give you the strength to look at your, as yet undiscovered possibilities, from a different point of view.
So, I was 26 years old. In Germany, he studied economics (BWL). Honestly, I knew German fairly well, but I did not know English at all. Nevertheless, my level of language was enough for me to find unskilled work and more or less with this money during my free time, also during my studies. Of course, I tried to search in offices or not such hard work, but all my attempts, and there were not one hundred of them, failed. I understood that it was necessary to study at the university, but there was no strength after me to sit at the books. Although I understand that there are people in this sense stronger than me.
In order to earn more, I started trading on ebay.de and other resources - these were mostly things. I bought cheaper and sold a little more expensive, but the profit was insignificant, this activity took a lot of time and it was quite difficult to compete with large or not so large companies and private traders. Often went to zero and it became clear that there is nothing to earn, at least for me.
What did I do? This is mainly physical labor, where one constantly feels humiliation and an acute shortage of money: in restaurants, in kitchens, in warehouses, sorted different products, cleaned residential premises, in hospitals, at construction sites, there was also work on some banquets and forums as waiters. Here I will recall the case where I met one girl who, in long rubber gloves in a poorly lit room, drained pans. It turned out her name is Irina, she and Perm, also came as a student and didn’t find a better job yet. But I will write about this girl later.
All this could be experienced. The most unpleasant thing is that life passes by, and you get neither experience nor useful connections, and you really can't complete your education. Sometimes it came to the fact that there was simply no money to buy food and clothing. Hungry, cold in the winter in the slush with torn shoes go to work, where you can put on dry clothes and some time to stay warm.
Acquaintances who felt better financially helped, but you know, everyone has his own life and problems, so you climb yourself. And yet I am grateful to Eugene from Rostov, who gave me a winter jacket and Alexander from Kiev, who gave me shoes for work. Later, I sincerely thanked these people. Thanked not for the fact that they gave clothes, but for the fact that they did not remain indifferent to the fate of another person.
This whole story lasted about 5 years, where attempts to make their lives better ended in complete failure, and each time it became lower and lower in social terms. status, while suffering pain and deprivation. But the situation was still not entirely deplorable, there was still some resource for life.
When the boiling point reached its maximum, I faced the question of what to do and needed to change something radically, because then there was only despair and a strange feeling of unwillingness to live.
Perhaps you had a similar, but you finally and irrevocably decided to change life and understand that they are ready to sacrifice to many in order to achieve the goal. I had the same situation. I was serious and very determined to change my life for the better.
By a strange coincidence, I was somehow interested in the IT topic and tried to read the news, but I was particularly interested in the creation of websites and one-page applications. Here are some of the resources that entwickler.de , t3n.de , www.heise.de has subscribed to . But it was all at the level of simple interest and never caused thoughts to start making money on it. But that was exactly the point of departure.
I started collecting site building information. Every free second, during a break at work, in transport, at home, I studied a new area of ​​knowledge. It turned out that the main structure is HTML, we style all styles in CSS (later mastered less and scss), and write logic in JavaScript. So I managed to create the first site that looked extremely miserable, but it was at least some result and a little experience.
Some are looking for some magic courses (with the next Internet guru) after which you will immediately master new knowledge. This is not entirely true, because the information is collected from various sources: these are of course books, video tutorials, articles, the same courses (any that you can find), including online courses, and a lot of practice. Consolidation traversed by practical examples. And of course, one of the best sites for developers on stackoverflow.com where you will find just a bunch of answers in the process of project execution. In any case, it is labor and diligence that must be applied.
I must say that I was already 31 and the situation was aggravated by the lack of higher IT education, work experience and a good command of it. and eng. languages. Those. an absolutely uncompetitive candidate, without the slightest prospects, will get at least into the meanest office. Having selected a few more or less suitable posts where junior projects were required in front-end development, I still sent resumes that were either refused or remained unanswered. Therefore, using standard methods to find work in the forehead, I did not have any chances and I understood this well.
Considering my savings, it became clear that without work I could last for a maximum of two months, and during that time I was going to realize a plan that had matured in me. Namely, to offer yourself as a junior developer, who is free, but for experience, will work or practice. I understood that it would not give me much, but it would be an experience, and also I could be on the trail. work to show, such projects, solved such problems and in the solution of which questions I participated. And in this I saw a weak but hope for a start in the IT field. It is unlikely that someone will come to work for free and this could distinguish me from other applicants. It was also necessary to show something to the employer from the projects made, even with errors or “not in trend”.
There was no time or knowledge to create a portfolio. Therefore, I made my biography in the form of a dynamic infographic (now I would have done everything quite differently), which I implemented on a closed site. All the charts, biography, skills, and small projects made, everything was presented on this site. Drop-down lists, buttons, menus, sliders, etc. everything was agreed among themselves and assembled into one single project. And now when I sent my resume I attached a link to the site where the login and password for access was attached. And any potential employer could immediately assess the level of qualification and, so to say, the degree of relevance to the firm. Through webmaster.yandex.ru I recorded all the IPs that came in, from which parts of Germany, where I clicked the mouse and what I was viewing. Well, for valuable advice on the design of high-quality design, I would like to thank talented designer Denis from Moscow, who helped me find the right fonts and colors for graphics completely free of charge.
Of course, I could register on de.linkedin.com and www.xing.com But firstly, I wasn’t a super cool developer and I didn’t like the openness of this data, if anyone wanted, I could see who I was. and where he worked. Later, I was still there, for self-promotion, although it does not matter.
About the third day after the resume was sent, something inexplicable started. If earlier I received 100% of refusals from 100. But now 80% were invited to talk, called, offered to remind myself later. And one company on the same day invited for an interview, where I came.
The company itself was small and consisted of 5 people. At the interview was only the head of this company. He understood that there was no education and work experience, and my German was not of the best quality. But he had before my eyes my project, which was made, albeit not professionally, but you could try to start working with me. Frankly, he just believed in me.
They were engaged in the creation of dashboard applications for the industry ( generation 4.0 who know ). My “website” liked this boss and even looked like the work they do. They used JavaScript and their own framework version 1.0, which later did not make me happy, because the application has become clear raw, no documentation, few experts. But all this I could not know at the very beginning of the journey, the most important thing, finally, the years of deprivation and suffering end. They accepted me. The salary was offered almost 4 times higher (they didn’t even ask why the resume is worth a word for free) compared to what I earned earlier and I just could not believe it. And I did it all myself and never saw such money in my life.
And yet the volumes and deadlines for work were a little strained. A year later I left there. But I still managed to get experience in “combat” JavaScript, a bit in PHP and MySQL databases.
I’ll skip a few episodes, in other companies there was also work, hard new knowledge, tangled code, familiarity with Jira and Git, inadequate “colleagues” and some effective managers who were always screaming (yes, they are there too), who cannot establish mutual understanding with customers who could not agree on a price for working with Ukrainian and Polish companies and are not able to figure out how to remake their GPS web system to GLONASS or when the head of the company agrees to create a new product, signs some paper, and only then asks the specialists at the firm if they can realize this project just darkness ... etc. But it was all the richest prof. experience in German companies that hardly anyone will tell.
And yet I was lucky. There I met several “our” programmers from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, who did not need to be explained for a long time and we understood each other perfectly. All the same, our people are our people, probably only abroad and understand this. So that no one speaks we are one people.
Through time, life scattered us in different directions. Someone went to freelance, two guys opened their startup (something with a backend and setting up the server part), the rest went to other firms. But we always maintained contact with each other and helped as best we could. They shared information, and “recommended” already to our bosses, good specialists, naturally our people. So we gave a guy from Kazakhstan to a good PHP developer position related to the state. insurance, another as a “stockholder” to a logistics company, another one to the IT security department of one of them. banks. Then I found Irina, about whom I wrote above. Her job was better than the previous one, but still ungrateful. Together, they arranged for one audit company with a very decent salary, which she is now very happy about.
Instead of an epilogue (almost tezisno)
The most powerful word is hard work.
Self-promotion and self-presentation, as the key to success.
Do not wait, but create the future yourself right now. All power is within you.
Difficulties harden and collect whole people around you.
Former classmates, classmates, friends are checked only in deed, not in words.
And of course, help each other!
PS: Almost all my friends from Ukraine and Russia do not know this story, and were always confident that if I was in Germany, then life was a success. Those difficulties that are described are taking place. Some are still waiting, others are already behind. But I sincerely wish you never to know about them.
And remember: “nobis libertas appropinquat” (we have to be free).
My name is Dmitry. I'm 36 years old and I'm a web developer / designer. I work in a German IT-company.
This is a story about how to achieve something more, overcoming difficulties. Here I will deliberately use only names, assuming that all participants want to remain anonymous. But if one of them reads this article and recognizes itself, then only with their permission will I indicate their names, their sites and projects.
')
It all started about 10 years ago. Young or not so young I decided to get an education in Germany. I myself am from a poor family, without any connections, and there’s absolutely nothing for a normal person to catch in my city. I will not describe the whole process with tickets, visas, an invitation from the university, I do not write about it here at all.
I, like each of you, met the success stories of people from England, USA or South America, and almost always found reflections of my life in them. And now, just want to tell my story. Although I understand that I am not the only one who has experienced a similar situation, about which below.
Probably, it makes no sense to read all these lyrics to people who have IT-education, who speak English and super experienced, who understood everything in life and understand everything better than anyone else. I am writing for ordinary people who, due to life circumstances, have lost heart, do not know what to do and let even a little this story give you the strength to look at your, as yet undiscovered possibilities, from a different point of view.
0. Start
So, I was 26 years old. In Germany, he studied economics (BWL). Honestly, I knew German fairly well, but I did not know English at all. Nevertheless, my level of language was enough for me to find unskilled work and more or less with this money during my free time, also during my studies. Of course, I tried to search in offices or not such hard work, but all my attempts, and there were not one hundred of them, failed. I understood that it was necessary to study at the university, but there was no strength after me to sit at the books. Although I understand that there are people in this sense stronger than me.
In order to earn more, I started trading on ebay.de and other resources - these were mostly things. I bought cheaper and sold a little more expensive, but the profit was insignificant, this activity took a lot of time and it was quite difficult to compete with large or not so large companies and private traders. Often went to zero and it became clear that there is nothing to earn, at least for me.
What did I do? This is mainly physical labor, where one constantly feels humiliation and an acute shortage of money: in restaurants, in kitchens, in warehouses, sorted different products, cleaned residential premises, in hospitals, at construction sites, there was also work on some banquets and forums as waiters. Here I will recall the case where I met one girl who, in long rubber gloves in a poorly lit room, drained pans. It turned out her name is Irina, she and Perm, also came as a student and didn’t find a better job yet. But I will write about this girl later.
All this could be experienced. The most unpleasant thing is that life passes by, and you get neither experience nor useful connections, and you really can't complete your education. Sometimes it came to the fact that there was simply no money to buy food and clothing. Hungry, cold in the winter in the slush with torn shoes go to work, where you can put on dry clothes and some time to stay warm.
Acquaintances who felt better financially helped, but you know, everyone has his own life and problems, so you climb yourself. And yet I am grateful to Eugene from Rostov, who gave me a winter jacket and Alexander from Kiev, who gave me shoes for work. Later, I sincerely thanked these people. Thanked not for the fact that they gave clothes, but for the fact that they did not remain indifferent to the fate of another person.
This whole story lasted about 5 years, where attempts to make their lives better ended in complete failure, and each time it became lower and lower in social terms. status, while suffering pain and deprivation. But the situation was still not entirely deplorable, there was still some resource for life.
1. It happened once
When the boiling point reached its maximum, I faced the question of what to do and needed to change something radically, because then there was only despair and a strange feeling of unwillingness to live.
Perhaps you had a similar, but you finally and irrevocably decided to change life and understand that they are ready to sacrifice to many in order to achieve the goal. I had the same situation. I was serious and very determined to change my life for the better.
By a strange coincidence, I was somehow interested in the IT topic and tried to read the news, but I was particularly interested in the creation of websites and one-page applications. Here are some of the resources that entwickler.de , t3n.de , www.heise.de has subscribed to . But it was all at the level of simple interest and never caused thoughts to start making money on it. But that was exactly the point of departure.
I started collecting site building information. Every free second, during a break at work, in transport, at home, I studied a new area of ​​knowledge. It turned out that the main structure is HTML, we style all styles in CSS (later mastered less and scss), and write logic in JavaScript. So I managed to create the first site that looked extremely miserable, but it was at least some result and a little experience.
Some are looking for some magic courses (with the next Internet guru) after which you will immediately master new knowledge. This is not entirely true, because the information is collected from various sources: these are of course books, video tutorials, articles, the same courses (any that you can find), including online courses, and a lot of practice. Consolidation traversed by practical examples. And of course, one of the best sites for developers on stackoverflow.com where you will find just a bunch of answers in the process of project execution. In any case, it is labor and diligence that must be applied.
I must say that I was already 31 and the situation was aggravated by the lack of higher IT education, work experience and a good command of it. and eng. languages. Those. an absolutely uncompetitive candidate, without the slightest prospects, will get at least into the meanest office. Having selected a few more or less suitable posts where junior projects were required in front-end development, I still sent resumes that were either refused or remained unanswered. Therefore, using standard methods to find work in the forehead, I did not have any chances and I understood this well.
2. Two in one
Considering my savings, it became clear that without work I could last for a maximum of two months, and during that time I was going to realize a plan that had matured in me. Namely, to offer yourself as a junior developer, who is free, but for experience, will work or practice. I understood that it would not give me much, but it would be an experience, and also I could be on the trail. work to show, such projects, solved such problems and in the solution of which questions I participated. And in this I saw a weak but hope for a start in the IT field. It is unlikely that someone will come to work for free and this could distinguish me from other applicants. It was also necessary to show something to the employer from the projects made, even with errors or “not in trend”.
There was no time or knowledge to create a portfolio. Therefore, I made my biography in the form of a dynamic infographic (now I would have done everything quite differently), which I implemented on a closed site. All the charts, biography, skills, and small projects made, everything was presented on this site. Drop-down lists, buttons, menus, sliders, etc. everything was agreed among themselves and assembled into one single project. And now when I sent my resume I attached a link to the site where the login and password for access was attached. And any potential employer could immediately assess the level of qualification and, so to say, the degree of relevance to the firm. Through webmaster.yandex.ru I recorded all the IPs that came in, from which parts of Germany, where I clicked the mouse and what I was viewing. Well, for valuable advice on the design of high-quality design, I would like to thank talented designer Denis from Moscow, who helped me find the right fonts and colors for graphics completely free of charge.
Of course, I could register on de.linkedin.com and www.xing.com But firstly, I wasn’t a super cool developer and I didn’t like the openness of this data, if anyone wanted, I could see who I was. and where he worked. Later, I was still there, for self-promotion, although it does not matter.
3. From centrifugal to centripetal
About the third day after the resume was sent, something inexplicable started. If earlier I received 100% of refusals from 100. But now 80% were invited to talk, called, offered to remind myself later. And one company on the same day invited for an interview, where I came.
The company itself was small and consisted of 5 people. At the interview was only the head of this company. He understood that there was no education and work experience, and my German was not of the best quality. But he had before my eyes my project, which was made, albeit not professionally, but you could try to start working with me. Frankly, he just believed in me.
They were engaged in the creation of dashboard applications for the industry ( generation 4.0 who know ). My “website” liked this boss and even looked like the work they do. They used JavaScript and their own framework version 1.0, which later did not make me happy, because the application has become clear raw, no documentation, few experts. But all this I could not know at the very beginning of the journey, the most important thing, finally, the years of deprivation and suffering end. They accepted me. The salary was offered almost 4 times higher (they didn’t even ask why the resume is worth a word for free) compared to what I earned earlier and I just could not believe it. And I did it all myself and never saw such money in my life.
And yet the volumes and deadlines for work were a little strained. A year later I left there. But I still managed to get experience in “combat” JavaScript, a bit in PHP and MySQL databases.
I’ll skip a few episodes, in other companies there was also work, hard new knowledge, tangled code, familiarity with Jira and Git, inadequate “colleagues” and some effective managers who were always screaming (yes, they are there too), who cannot establish mutual understanding with customers who could not agree on a price for working with Ukrainian and Polish companies and are not able to figure out how to remake their GPS web system to GLONASS or when the head of the company agrees to create a new product, signs some paper, and only then asks the specialists at the firm if they can realize this project just darkness ... etc. But it was all the richest prof. experience in German companies that hardly anyone will tell.
And yet I was lucky. There I met several “our” programmers from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, who did not need to be explained for a long time and we understood each other perfectly. All the same, our people are our people, probably only abroad and understand this. So that no one speaks we are one people.
Through time, life scattered us in different directions. Someone went to freelance, two guys opened their startup (something with a backend and setting up the server part), the rest went to other firms. But we always maintained contact with each other and helped as best we could. They shared information, and “recommended” already to our bosses, good specialists, naturally our people. So we gave a guy from Kazakhstan to a good PHP developer position related to the state. insurance, another as a “stockholder” to a logistics company, another one to the IT security department of one of them. banks. Then I found Irina, about whom I wrote above. Her job was better than the previous one, but still ungrateful. Together, they arranged for one audit company with a very decent salary, which she is now very happy about.
Instead of an epilogue (almost tezisno)
The most powerful word is hard work.
Self-promotion and self-presentation, as the key to success.
Do not wait, but create the future yourself right now. All power is within you.
Difficulties harden and collect whole people around you.
Former classmates, classmates, friends are checked only in deed, not in words.
And of course, help each other!
PS: Almost all my friends from Ukraine and Russia do not know this story, and were always confident that if I was in Germany, then life was a success. Those difficulties that are described are taking place. Some are still waiting, others are already behind. But I sincerely wish you never to know about them.
And remember: “nobis libertas appropinquat” (we have to be free).
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/348744/
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